Hands Off – Reducing violence against sex workers
The Hands Off programme works to reduce violence against sex workers at community, national and regional level.
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Exposing inequality and violence against sex workers in Southern Africa. Evidence on human rights violations 2025
This report presents data on human rights violations against female, male and transgender sex workers documented between November 2024 and December 2025 under the Hands Off programme. During this period, 2.917 cases were reported by sex workers across Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Eswatini, Angola, South Africa, and Zambia.
Information was collected by peer educators, human rights defenders, paralegals, crisis response teams, and sex workers. They all play a vital role in providing support throughout the
region. When a sex worker seeks assistance, the incident is recorded using secure and confidential software to ensure privacy and accuracy.
While this report provides important insights, it captures only a snapshot of the realities sex workers face. The data reflects cases documented within Hands Off implementation sites,
meaning many violations remain unseen and unrecorded. Behind every statistic is a person whose fundamental rights have been violated. A powerful reminder that these numbers
tell only part of the story.
